Need format information that JVC recorders used in 2004

[Old Duffer]

I used a JVC DVD Recorder (DR-M70) to transfer video from my Sony cassette camcorder in 2004. All these DVD-R discs play on my tv using my old recorder but are not recognized in widows 10 or 7.
There are NO files shown. Under properties = 0 bytes. I'd like to transfer them onto my pc in a more updated mp4 format, so I can edit it. Is there a program for this?
The videos are family keepsakes that I'd like to pass on. Any help is appreciated.

[lingyi]

Common issue with DVD recorders is that the discs must be finalized and closed by the recorder. Lots of threads about this hereY. Note that nothing has changed since the earliest threads. Your best bet if you don't have the recorder is to find another one and use that.

Some people have had success with programs like ISOBuster and ISOPuzzle that may be able to pull the raw data off the discs. ISOBuster is reported to work best, but you have to pay for the program to actually recover anything. Key with any recovery program is to let it run, possibly for days or weeks as it keeps retrying to recover the data.

Edit: Re-reading your post, it seems you still have the recorder which is good news. Finalize/Close your discs and they should be recognized by your PC. Here's the manual if you don't have it: https://www.manualsearcher.com/jvc/dr-m70/manual

[orsetto]

On a related note, even when properly finalized some of the vintage classic JVC dvd recorders authored their dvds with inert passive menus and no "autoplay" flag. Lots of ordinary standalone hardware players and many computer setups will "play dead" when loaded with such discs: i.e. not recognize them. Hardware players will usually wake up and play the disc if you hit their Title Menu or Play buttons, but computer software players can be really difficult to coax: without an auto-run flag they don't know what to make of a video dvd. Depending on the software, you either have to dig five levels deep in their action menus or open the disc in Windows and literally drag the IFO file into the player window.

BTW it isn't recommended to convert a recorder dvd to MP4 for editing. Use a lossless extraction utility like VOB2MPG to convert the DVD into MPG files, and edit those before converting to a further compressed format like MP4. Its been my experience that DVDs made from camcorder footage do not convert well to MP4, so hold onto the DVDs or (extracted MPGs) as archival backups.

[Old Duffer]

Thank you for the quick replies. Overwhelming reference to read, absorb and try!

Edit: After a lot of reading, came full circle. Seems that the few DVDs out of a couple of dozen were not finalized! Luckily I still had the old recorder and now can deal with the Video TS format.
Thnx again